First we had Congressman Todd Akin's insane theory that a woman can't get pregnant from a rape because their body somehow knows the difference and does something to not get pregnant. Soon after Akin made that utterly unscientific statement, people started talking about how this Bible-believing-batshitterist was, incredibly, on the House Science Committee.
Now we have Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia stating that evolution and the big bang theory are "lies straight from the pit of Hell." And, guess what? Broun is also on the House Science Committee.
Here's some more of what Broun said:
"All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. And it's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.""You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I've found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I don't believe that the Earth's but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That's what the Bible says."
What nobody seems to have noticed is that Akin, Broun, Neugebauer, and all the other members of Congress spewing these idiotic faith-based "science" theories have something else in common besides being ignorant twits. They all belong to Congressman Randy Forbes's Congressional Prayer Caucus. These are the wingnuts who do things like holding prayer vigils to pray that votes on legislation go their way.
I first became aware of the Congressional Prayer Caucus back in 2007, when the founder of this nut brigade, Congressman Randy Forbes of Virginia, introduced H. Res. 888, his resolution "Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as 'American Religious History Week' for the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith." That resolution, which has been re-introduced several times since 2007, was a litany of historical revisionism, with seventy-five "Whereas" clauses packed with same American history lies used by Forbes's good buddy pseudo-historian David Barton.
Then, because of working for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), I happened to notice something else about the Congressional Prayer Caucus. There is always a disproportionate number of Prayer Caucus members on the House Armed Services Committee. There are roughly twice as many Prayer Caucus members on the Armed Services Committee as there are proportionally in the House as a whole.
Knowing that both Akin and Broun are Prayer Caucus members as well as being members of the House Science Committee, I decided to look at the make-up of the Science Committee, and here's what I found:
Eleven members of the Science Committee are also members of Randy Forbes's Prayer Caucus. This is disturbing since we're talking about people who reject science being on a Science Committee, but the number is not out of proportion. Nearly a quarter of the members of our House of Representatives now belong to the Prayer Caucus (OK, that's disturbing enough in itself), but the House Science Committee has forty members, making eleven Prayer Caucus members about a quarter of that committee.
But then I looked at the subcommittees of the Science Committee, and that's where things get really disturbing. Five of the twelve members of the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education are Prayer Caucus members. This is the subcommittee that has "legislative jurisdiction and general oversight and investigative authority on all matters relating to science policy and science education." It also has jurisdiction over research and development relating to health and biomedical programs. So, what we've got here is a subcommittee with jurisdiction over the very issues and programs where religious beliefs are most likely to clash with science being disproportionately packed with the people most likely to go with religion over science.
The biggest disproportion of all? Of the 105 members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, only four are Democrats (3.8%), but two of the four Democrats (50%) on the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education are Prayer Caucus members.
Follow Chris Rodda on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChrisRodda1
A heavy dose of Christian hate-speech - like a good HPer.
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“I, (name of Member), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God”
The first amendment...
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
From Websters...
"Caucus : a closed meeting of a group of persons belonging to the same political party or faction usually to select candidates or to decide on policy; also : a group of people united to promote an agreed-upon cause."
So by joining a caucus designed to promote prayer, which is an establishment of religion that can only be achived thru the passage of law, they have violated their oaths to defend the constitution.
They are individually free to be guided by their faith, but once they join that caucus, they have broken their oaths. Period.
Sorry that Randy Forbes is from my state.
http://forbes.house.gov/prayercaucus/about.aspx
We have in the House and Senate today the greatest collection of zero IQ's ever to gather in one government. How soon do witch trials begin and the inquisition start?
Chris, thankyou for doing your research on this Prayer Caucus. I would like more information on this Prayer Caucus group to see what other areas they have infiltrated, to see what else they could be making decisions on. The members seem absolute bonkers.